Best brush/scrubber for hand washing clothes?

GlynG

I’ve only hand washed clothes once or twice in my life, but will now have to do daily for the next few years cycling around the tropics and Oz. I’ve picked up a folding bowl and a few bars of all-purpose soap but I’m not sure what sort of brush to use to clean my clothes.

I’m guessing some people here are very experienced in hand washing. Please could you recommend the best sort of brush or scrubber or whatever to hand wash clothes and where to buy it from? Would I want one with plastic bristles or natural ones? I’d rather get a good one rather than necessarily the cheapest. My cycling and mosquito repellent cloths are lightweight and very expensive, so I don’t want to damage them, but I do want to get them clean.

BitterAndTwisted

Unless they are stained and caked in muck you may not need to scrub them at all. For removing spots or small stains I generally use a nail-brush

meritaten

better to soak them overnight and wash very gently in soap flakes hun. only use a soft nail brush if absolutely necessary on such delicate fabrics!

JBD

There is no need to scrub clothes when hand washing. Just dissolve some of your soap in hot water, agitate the water a little and squeeze the clothes gently. Also lift them up and out of the water so that the soapy water goes through the fabric [as it does in a washing machine] Then rinse thoroughly. If they are very dirty then leave them to soak for a little while 1st. Also hang them up to dry in sunlight if you can, that gets them extra clean and helps destroy any germs [bleaching effect].
I hand wash a lot and my washing always come up very clean.

tanith

I agree with everyone else no one scrubs clothes unless they are caked in 'stuff'. Soak overnight and then rinse through should be fine.. I wouldn't think expensive cycling and other things would stand much scrubbing anyway.

valk_scot

For camping I have a very small nail brush that I got out a Christmas cracker, lol. It works on both me and any marks on the laundry. For cycling clothes the mud and dirt should just wash out with no scrubbing. For things like oil marks rub in a little detergent...shampoo is fine, or you can use the stuff in pumps in the loo...and either rub it in with your fingers or scrub gently with the nail brush. Then soak and wash as normal.

And once a month stop somewhere with a washing machine? That's what I used to do in the days I went cycle-camping anyway.

GlynG

Thanks for all the replies! I'll generally manage without then but pick up a nail brush for gently removing tougher dirt/stains when necessary.

I didn't really know what a nail brush was and was visualising the tiny little brush in a pot of nail varnish at first, but a google image search for 'nail brush' has shown me pictures and it looks like the sort of thing my late mum used for her handwashing, I just hadn't known what it was called.